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Archive for January 21st, 2013
Inauguration 2013: Obama calls immigration, climate change key second-term issues
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 21st, 2013
Associated Press: WASHINGTON (AP) -- Declaring "our journey is not complete," President Barack Obama took the oath of office for his second term before a crowd of hundreds of thousands Monday, urging the nation to set an unwavering course toward prosperity and freedom for all its citizens and protect the social safety net that has sheltered the poor, elderly and needy.
"Our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it," Obama said in his relatively brief, 18-minute...
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The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity in Local and Regional Policy – a book review
Posted by Mongabay: Gabriel Thoumi on January 21st, 2013
Mongabay: The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity in Local and Regional Policy, edited by Heidi Wittmar and Haripriya Gundimeda, provides thoughtful and actionable approaches to integrate nature’s benefits into decision-making frameworks for local and regional policy and public management institutions. Filled with numerous case studies, The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity in Local and Regional Policy, delivers a compendium of concepts and ideas. These case studies focus on steps that can be implemented...
Women need more adaptation funding, activists charge
Posted by AlertNet: Syful Islam on January 21st, 2013
AlertNet: Despite being disproportionately affected by climate change, women and girls are getting relatively little attention and money in Bangladesh's climate adaptation initiatives, activists and negotiators say.
The Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund, financed with Tk 25 billion ($305 million) from the national budget, has financed only one project focused on women out of 109 climate adaptation and mitigation projects, they say.
Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, coordinator of the Bangladesh climate negotiation...
Taking a Harder Look at Fracking and Health
Posted by New York Times: Jon Hurdle on January 21st, 2013
New York Times: A coalition of academic researchers in the United States is preparing to shine a rigorous scientific light on the polarized and often emotional debate over whether fracking for natural gas is hazardous to human health.
Some five years after the controversial combination of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling in the gas-rich Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania and surrounding states got under way, a team of toxicologists from the University of Pennsylvania is leading a national effort to study...
The Climate Change Endgame
Posted by New York Times: Thomas E. Lovejoy on January 21st, 2013
New York Times: WHETHER in Davos or almost anywhere else that leaders are discussing the world’s problems, they are missing by far the biggest issue: the rapidly deteriorating global environment and its ability to support civilization. The situation is pretty much an endgame. Unless pressing issues of the biology of the planet and of climate change generated by greenhouse gas emissions are addressed with immediacy and at appropriate scale, the matters that occupy Davos discussions will be seen in retrospect as...
Warming Soil Could Release Carbon, Enhance Effects Of Climate Change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 21st, 2013
RedOrbit: Climate change could cause soil to grow warmer and release additional carbon dioxide into the air, enhancing the effects of global warming, a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change has discovered.
The study, which was completed by scientists from the University of New Hampshire (UNH), the University of California-Davis (UC Davis), and the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), provides new insight into how microorganisms in the earth are influenced by temperature, though it also...
What is causing Australia’s heatwave?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 21st, 2013
Guardian: Australia has started 2013 with a record-breaking heat wave that has lasted more than two weeks across many parts of the country. Temperatures have regularly gone above 48°C, with the highest recorded maximum of 49.6°C at Moomba in South Australia. The extreme conditions have been associated with a delayed onset of the Australian monsoon, and slow moving weather systems over the continent.
Australia has always experienced heat waves, and they are a normal part of most summers. However, the current...
Why China needs dissuading from a dash-for-gas energy solution
Posted by Ecologist: Lorna Howarth on January 21st, 2013
Ecologist: Already known as the 'Smog Capital' of China, Beijing is currently experiencing a spike in deadly PM-25 particulates emitted from vehicles and coal-fired power stations, with levels over 20 times the World Health Organisation (WHO) safe limit.
The city is now on orange alert with residents advised not to venture outside. Unlike other developed cities, Beijing saw exponential growth in car ownership before it phased-out coal-fired power stations, leading to high smog levels and residents resorting...
Climate Change Tipping Points, Human and Geophysical: Which Will Come First?
Posted by Triple Pundit: RP Siegel on January 21st, 2013
Triple Pundit: There seems to be some evidence to suggest that as the storm tide swept over the East Coast last Fall, it lifted the tide of public opinion in its wake. As scientists warn of a global warming tipping point driven by positive feedback loops such as the declining albedo effect of ice turning to water or the liberation of methane gas from thawing permafrost, are we finally reaching, in the aftermath of yet another temperature record-breaking year, featuring another deadly American storm, a tipping point...
Climate change hurting Amazon rainforest warns Nasa – Responding to Climate Change
Posted by RTCC: None Given on January 21st, 2013
RTCC: Large areas of the Amazon rainforest appear to be deteriorating as a result of drought due to climate change, new research from Nasa reveals.
An area of the Amazon rainforest twice the size of California has suffered from a megadrought that began in 2005, causing widespread changes to the forest canopy that were detectable by satellite.
While rainfall levels picked up post 2005, the old-growth forest in southwestern Amazonia appears to have struggled to recover before another drought hit the...